The Business of Litigation Finance Is Booming

By Paul Barrett, Bloomberg Businessweek

The buying and selling of lawsuits — a decade-old practice in the U.S. known as litigation finance — continues to expand. Consider Pierce Sergenian, a six-lawyer trial boutique started this year by John Pierce and David Sergenian, refugees from the litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. The new firm already has an impressive array of contingency-fee cases, where lawyers get paid out of any trial or settlement award. The portfolio includes a high-profile suit against Snap Inc. filed on behalf of a former employee who alleges he was fired for refusing to help executives ...